My buddy Heba wrote a nice acticle for the Dept. of Foreign Affairs Intercultures Magazine. Here is the corrected intro from her with a link to the rest of the story. Good job Heba.
JUBA, SUDAN – In a crowded United Nations conference room in a southwestern Sudanese town called Wau, an exchange of sorts took place between two men of very different worlds who had more in common than they might have thought.
At the front of the room was Constable Charles Obeng, a Canadian originally from Ghana, on Africa's west coast. Seated among dozens of students was a young Sudanese man.
Obeng was a UN peacekeeper, deployed with five other members of the RCMP to help Sudan's southern police force build its capacity after more than two decades of civil war between the Muslim north and the mostly animist south.
The young Sudanese man was a local police officer who had lost several family members during the brutal war.
On this day, Obeng and fellow Canadian Scott Burge were training a group of some 50 Sudanese police officers on SWAT techniques. Obeng is black. Burge is white.
During a break, the young Sudanese police officer approached Obeng with a question: "Did you know Scott before you both became officers?"
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cfsi-icse/cil-cai/magazine/magazine-en.asp?txt=1-3&lv=1
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2 comments:
A really inspirational story Wayne. I have forwarded it to my contacts of people here working against oppression and discrimination. Sometimes we forget that, though imperfect as a nation in this regard, we can still serve as a role model to others!
Thanks Valerie. I agree, I'm not suggesting we're perfect in Canada, but when you see some of the conflict between tribes here you realize how peaceful we really are in Canada.
I'm working on a reply to your email by the way.
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